Unfortunately, where I live, none of the services like Pandora, Spotify or Grooveshark are available, so up until recently I made do with word of mouth/chance discoveries. Some people knock it, but I found that Google Reader is really useful for aggregating blogs and such, because it makes it easier to scan content and pick through what looks good, across a variety of genres and styles. Also, sometimes I throw r/listentothis up on the TV whilst I'm busy there; it's good for background music, and comes up with nice stuff regularly. Specifically I like Indie Shuffle a lot. They might not appeal to everyone, but I think they have a pretty big variety. The redeeming quality for me is a little "Sounds Like" tag thingy in most of the posts that quickly tells you whether it's up your alley.
Where do you live? Do you have iOS? Not sure if it is on other platforms, but Songza is like a Pandora but with a collection of 'curated' playlists based on the time of day, mood, or activity you are engaged in. Something about choosing from their massive selection of curated playlists has made it really great for discovery for me lately.
Ah, I see. Well, I'll bet that the possibilities are going to open up sooner rather than later with an increase in Android handsets before even iOS. I bet Android would be far better for hacking together access to online streaming services that don't serve your region due to licensing issues than iOS will ever be. iOS likes to play cozy with the giant media content companies that withhold content to various regions due to license restrictions.